She is one of the highest-earning sportswomen in the world, with access to the best healthcare retreats money can buy.
But after undergoing multiple surgeries, there was only one place Emma Raducanu wanted to recuperate: her granny’s flat in a grey Communist-era block in Romania.
The US Open champion had been desperate to see Niculina Raducanu – who she calls ‘Mamiya’, an affectionate Romanian term for Granny – after an operation on her right hand in mid-May.
Niculina, 90, told the Mail about how her tennis star granddaughter came to stay at the humble £70,000 third-floor apartment on the edge of Bucharest after being discharged from hospital.
‘She [Emma] said that she only came to see me and that she didn’t want to talk to anyone else but me,’ she said.
